Spam comments on WordPress site are one of the most fatal issues every WordPress user must face even your site is just new.
As your site gets more popular, the more you receive spam comments on your WordPress site.
So, in this article, I will discuss what WordPress Spam comments are and how you can slow them down and be at peace. Be rest assure that all these measures are into practice.
What are Spam Comments on WordPress?
Spam comments are comments with less value and posted on a site to;
- gain backlink,
- visibility,
- force users to submit data without permission,
- Post unrelated topic comments on your articles and
- tricky contents.
If you allow such comments, your site will look unprofessional and will be a threat to authentic visitors or customers.
The image above explains how a spam comment looks like, with that, you will identify them even when a user bypassed the security of your site. Let us get to see how you can stop spam comments on WordPress and keep your WordPress site authentic.
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6 Powerful Ways To Stop Spam Comments on WordPress.
Let us find out how these 6 suggestions can reduce spam comments on your WordPress site. Also, to help you stay away from being a scapegoat. If you are already, learn how to opt out of the situation.
Some WordPress sites allow automatic approval of comments. Well, if you allow such methods on your site, it is dangerous and can lead your site to lose SEO rankings.
Because of the useless comments that you approve as said earlier, may look unprofessional to unique visitors.
#1 Reduce Number of links allowed per article
This method is easy to enable and you can set it from the WordPress admin panel under the discussion settings.
- Login to your WordPress dashboard (admin panel)
- Go to settings and select discussions
- Find comment moderation and you will see something like the below image.
With that, you can set the numbers of links it will hold a comment for moderation.
Whenever a comment has links placed in the comment more than the specified number, this system will flag the comment as spam. So check the comments if they contain suspicious links and contents before approving them.
#2 Set a number blacklisted Keywords
To blacklist a keyword you don’t want them to appear in the comment section, go to settings>discussions and add keywords you want to blacklist.
Some of these keywords include strong explicit terms, movies, bet, and any keywords that do not relate to the content on your site.
While adding these keywords separate each of them with comma punctuation.
e.g. WordPress, Domain, betting, buy, blah blah blah keywords.
#3. Install anti-spam comment plugin such as Akismet.
Stop spam comment on WordPress, Install Akismet WordPress Plugin, a free WordPress plugin that helps you take care of your site from spam comments.
Login to your admin dashboard, navigate to the WordPress plugin repo to download or install (direct download link) or install and activate the plugin.
Once the plugin is activated, it will moderate new spam comments by moving them to the spam section. You can set Akismet in a way it automatically deletes a comment if flagged as spam.
#4 Enable Disqus Comment System
This method works well because users cannot add links in the comment section and require one to log in a Disqus account to add a comment on a post.
You can download and install Disqus from the WordPress plugin repo, otherwise, some themes have the Disqus comment feature added.
You can just switch to discuss from the themes option. However, if your theme does not have the pre-built Disqus plugin, you can install from the WordPress repo and set it up, that’s all you need to stop spam comments for good.
#5 Restrict Comments to registered users only.
This method is the easiest way to stop spam comments on WordPress sites.
If you enable this feature on your WordPress site, Admins, authors, contributors and registered users; these set of users are the ones who can add comments to posts on your blog.
It helps your site looks organized and professional.
To set it to go to settings>discussions on your admin dashboard and enable the option that says “User must be registered and logged in to comment” and you are all set.
Now only you and other admins will have access to add comments on your WordPress site.
#6 Enable Google Recaptcha on your comment forms.
This is one of the best and most secure ways of stopping spam comments on WordPress sites, especially if your sites is an e-commerce site.
I am using these methods and I am recommending it to you now.
To use this method on your WordPress site, download the Google recaptcha for WordPress and install the plugin.
set the plugin up, bingo and you are good to go.
Summing-up
Spam comments have caused a lot of security harms to my WordPress site.
That’s why I took these measures to improve my site’s security by using these methods to stop spam comments on the WordPress site.
However, I recommend that you get one of these methods working on your WordPress site as well to stop spam comments.
To stop comment spam on your WordPress site, you should,
- Reduce Number of links allowed per article
- Set a number blacklisted Keywords
- Install anti-spam comment plugin such as Akismet.
- Install Disqus Comment plugin
- Restrict Comments to registered users only.
- Enable Google Recaptcha on your comment forms.
I hope this post has helped to reduce spam comments on your WordPress site.
How do you control spam comments on your WordPress blog?
